As one of the oldest businesses in Baltimore in one of the oldest industries in the world, Hilgartner Natural Stone Co. doesn't hesitate to celebrate history.
But Wednesday's event marking its move to a bigger building in Southwest Baltimore is about the future, said Thomas Doyle, president of the stone fabrication firm, which is known for its work on many of the region's offices, homes, monuments and churches, including the downtown Holocaust Memorial.
"The new facility puts us in a position for the first time in the last 20 years to truly grow," he said.
Founded in Baltimore by a German immigrant in 1863, Hilgartner got its start making marble gravestones during the Civil War. The firm soon expanded to supplying the stone for construction work across the country, opening offices in Chicago and Los Angeles before retrenching during the Great Depression.
Today, the firm, which often works with construction firms like Whiting-Turner, generates about $2 million to $2.5 million in revenue each year and employs about 18 people, a number that can increase to about 40 depending on the job, Doyle said.
"It's one of the go-to firms" for stone work, said Douglas Johnson, capital projects manager for the Archdiocese of Baltimore, which has hired Hilgartner for repairs and other projects. "They patch it and you won't ever know that it was broken. It's imperceptible."
Doyle said Hilgartner was limited by its prior space in Sharp Leadenhall, where it had been based since the 1970s. There, materials often had to be stored outside and it was difficult to limit worker exposure to the dust created by ground stone — a health risk in some cases, such as granite, he said.
When developer Arsh Mirmiran of Caves Valley Partners came knocking, interested in acquiring the Cross Street site for its Stadium Square development, Hilgartner was willing to relocate, even if moving a marble shop wasn't exactly easy.
Doyle said he hopes the roughly 16,000-square-foot site near Carroll Park allows the firm to expand and evolve, continuing to experiment with new tools, such as 3D printing, while retaining its expertise in a craft with techniques honed over thousands of years.
"We could sit on our laurels of having this skill set … but if we stay with that, we'll just continue to dwindle away," said Doyle, who was born in Baltimore and bought Hilgartner 30 years ago. "We need to continue to move forward, and that's really what this new facility gives us."
Hilgartner purchased the 2220 Severn St. property for $435,000 in November 2014, in part settling on the location because of the tax benefits that come with a site inside an Enterprise Zone, Doyle said. The city, which helped the firm scout for locations, also improved the road into the property and water drainage.
"It's incredibly important that they … sought to stay in the city," said William H. Cole IV, president of the Baltimore Development Coalition.
Cole added that Hilgartner also has shown its commitment by collaborating with the city's youth and adult employment agencies.
"In many ways, they're the ideal small business in the fact that they are more than willing to partner with the city," he said.
Hilgartner spent $1.3 million working with Whiting-Turner to renovate the former foundry, creating a separate room for the riskier stone-cutting — a design that Doyle said luckily anticipated new federal rules designed to improve safety in industries with exposure to silica.
The bathrooms and lobby boast some of the firm's work, like a marble sink in the handicapped-accessible bathroom that was once displayed in the firm's former Washington showroom.
"I would put our handicapped bathroom against any one in the city," Doyle joked.
"There was not a building that I saw that had not had Hilgartner hands on it," he said. "It just wasn't going to happen."